The detection of small differences in nucleic acid content is an important task within the field of molecular diagnostics.
The most common method used to detect small quantities of nucleic acids is by using PCR or RT-PCR. These methods perform exceptionally well in determining whether a to sequence of interest is present in a given sample or not, but in order to determine if there is a difference between the concentration of two sequences, approximately a 2-fold difference is needed.
Quantitative analysis of nucleic acid is used for example, in quality control, gene expression analysis, medical monitoring and diagnosis. Methods are described herein that significantly improve the accuracy of these measurements, opening up new possibilities within science and medicine.